Original ideas no longer exist in Anime. Presentation can go a long ways. This series may not have gotten that memo, but I loved it nonetheless. Welcome to my review.
What is it About
Sometime after World War II, government-arranged marriages have become a major part of law in Japan. Birth rates are low and 16 year olds are randomly selected to receive their soulmates through science. It’s loosely implied that this can happen at any time after that age but the core affected characters are between 16 and 17. The story revolves around how this affects a group of four teenagers and the complexities of young love in an uncertain society.
Who are the Main Characters
Yukari Nejima - a simple, very average young man. Calling him a typical harem protagonist would undersell him but your mileage will vary with how much you relate to him. He’s been in love with Misaki Takasaki for the past five years but waited until right before his 16th birthday to finally confess.
Misaki Takasaki - popular classmate of Yukari. She’s also been in love with him and following him for five years without speaking much to him. The friends that knew her true feelings jokingly called her his “stalker” but it’s implied that several people knew how both of them felt about each other. She confesses to him at the same time as he does to her but also is very flawed and prone to lying about her real feelings.
Yusuke Nisaka - Yukari’s closest male friend. Unknown to Yukari, he has been in love with him since the moment they became friends. It is implied that homosexuality is not allowed in this modern society, so his feelings could never be shared. He is also the butt of many jokes involving his “fanclub,” a group of background characters that all want to date him and see him naked.
Ririna Sanada - Yukari’s government-assigned future wife. She’s very straightforward and open about her feelings and views, making her appear antagonistic to her classmates at an all girls academy and Yukari upon their first meeting. This leads to her being alone and struggling the most with her feelings about everything. She becomes fast friends with and the glue that holds the group together.
What did I Like
The characters may seem simple and archetypal on first glance, but I felt that none of the main characters were mishandled. They all had their own things going on and all lied to each other in equal measures out of love. All four of them loved each other by the end, and it felt very natural and well earned.
The OP and ED both had tracks that I want to listen to outside of the series. The first felt very optimistic while having lyrics relevant to the series’ core subject matter. The latter tied directly into how both female leads felt throughout yet couldn’t completely show.
None of the voice cast felt like they were phoning it in. Every one of them, including the background characters, all felt like they existed in the world and had their own things going on outside of the main story. The main cast was no exception.
This last part is coming from an outsider perspective, so I could be stepping over boundaries and may be unqualified to bring it up. I felt that the portrayal of Yusuke as a closeted gay man was handled extremely well. Typically, these types of characters are one-dimensional and treated like their sexual preferences are somehow wrong. They treated that aspect of him with care. Later on, there was a fascinating reinterpretation of Romeo and Juliet in which he played Juliet; they played with his femininity and sexuality in a way that I felt was tasteful and when he calls Yukari “Baka,” it got a massive laugh out of me. I appreciate that the only other time that they explicitly showed this side of him was the moment he kissed a sleeping Yukari on the lips and then continued just being his best friend the rest of the time without changing much of how he acted. The misunderstanding that he and Misaki were possibly a thing but actually were jealous of each other due to their shared romantic affection of Yukari, it being just left for the audience to figure out was wonderful.
What did I Dislike
The animation and character designs were frequently off model and somewhat distracting at times. There were luckily only a small handful of times that 3D CGI was used; it was used for vehicles and transportation in small scenes, but every time, it felt very janky and off framerate. The visual quality was everywhere but didn’t ruin the experience for me to drop the show. Most of the music was also very forgettable and was predictable based on the scene they were used in. Back to the beginning, the presentation was the worst part for me.
There were also some plot threads and changes in character dynamics that never get explained when they should have been. By the end, the main mysteries and world itself weren’t given enough screentime due to this being a 12 episode series. I would have loved for a 24 episode run in this case if it meant fleshing out things in a solid way without destroying the core elements I enjoyed in the previous section.
This series has no dub and sometimes the characters speak so fast and say so much at one time, it’s hard to keep up with some of the official English subtitles. It’s also HiDive exclusive (which is not a negative for me) but depending on where you live, the default subtitles between episodes can sometimes switch from your preferred language. I live in Texas, so these are sometimes Latin American Spanish even after I set to English in the global settings.
Two Points Where I have a Different Opinion Than Most Critics and Reviewers
This section I felt should have been a separate one due to my thoughts. The ending and several plot points will be spoiled. Skip the rest of this review if you want to avoid these and go watch the series instead. Enjoy.
A common issue many viewers had during and after the season this aired was the eyes for all female characters. Almost every one of them had large, almost doll like eyes, while the male characters had standard, more realistic eyes. At first, this did bother me, but after the first episode, I got used to them. In fact, due to the themes, I personally felt that they added to the series quite a bit. The core themes: what is love, how many kinds of love can coincide together, and how would you navigate love when you are forbidden to follow your heart. The doll eyes could be viewed as a representation of the last one while also portraying innocence before reality destroys their futures.
Most of the core drama of the series revolves around these and characters handled them in ways I could relate to and understand. Very similar to Oh Maidens, In Your Savage Season (will review this after a rewatch; it’s going to be another hard one for me, for good reasons), these are all teenagers put in a complicated situation, and they don’t know how to deal with it. Teens are stupid, messy, horny and lost at times. I felt that the few adults that directly attempted to understand what these teens were going through (omitting the parents and teachers), they added a bit of much needed levity.
The scene where the assigned couples were required to watch porn and were expected to have sex with each other was both fairly tasteful in its presentation and got several laughs out of me due to knowing the awkwardness and anxiety of Yukari and Ririna. There was nothing sexy about it and many other scenes that typically would have been classified as fanservice felt mostly just as tasteful. There was a mandatory bikini episode but that part banked at around 5 minutes of the runtime and Ririna going off to masturbate was the only gag that I had to raise an eye brow to; it was a blink and you miss it moment.
Another point of contention was the ending. It ends with Yusuke giving up any possible chance he had with being with Yukari, and Yukari metaphorically marrying both girls in the typical “harem” ending that many a trashy series felt the need to pander to the fantasies of their expected lonely male audience. I myself typically don’t go for these types of shows and this trope ending has bothered me in the past. I instead laughed, cried and clapped at it. I was satisfied, much to my surprise.
“How is this one different than those?”, you might be asking. The biggest factor for me: the series never really forced that aspect. At first, I expected this to be the focus of everything the way many harems handle it. There were light sprinkles here and there but the main focus was on the characters and their complicated feelings about the situation they’re in. The show was not deep at all but I felt it never forgot that these were teenagers.
The fact that the main character and the marriage program shared the same name was cute. According to Wikipedia, one interpretation of Yukari is “tie” and that was a motif throughout connecting the complicated relationships characters had. The ties that kept me bound to the series were the characters and there was enough to them to keep me satisfied.
The harem ending was not what I expected but happened out of mutual, respectful love between the four main characters. That’s miles more impactful and resonating with me than the vast majority of what Anime does. I’ll take that as a win any day.
My Final Thoughts
Love and Lies was a series I went into with no expectations and knew nothing about it prior. I came out of it wanting more and appreciated what it did right more than what it did wrong. Sometimes, that’s plenty for me.
What did y’all think about it? How many of you would want to watch it after this review? Leave your comments below.
Important Info
- Genres: Shonen, High School Drama, Romance, Alt History
- Original Source: 12 Volume Manga by Musawo (August 2014 through January 2022)
- Studio: Liden Films
- Episodes / Season: 12 episodes + 1 OVA; Summer 2017
- Similar shows: A Couple of Cuckoos (similar premise and character archetypes) and Oh Maidens, In Your Savage Season (teen drama revolving around the complexities of various forms of love)